Turning precious drops into timeless pieces

Momma's Milky Love', jewellery that is made of mother's breast milk has been trending across the country now.

Preethy Vijay, the founder of this innovative jewellery piece that is customised with the milk of a mother has truly impressed people to treasure something that is close to their heart.

In a freewheeling chat Preethy opens up about this unique creation.

What brought you to jewellery design?

I am a graduate in B.Com, and I have done a PG Diploma in HRM. Art and craft has been my childhood passions and that made me continue my career in the field of arts.

How did you get the idea of creating jewellery with breast milk?

This has been in the market for quite a long time now, but in India I am the first person to start this concept. The idea came up when I joined a group called 'Smart Mummy's on Facebook.

A member of the group posted asking if there were such jewellery makers in India and since I was already into clay craft, it sounded new to me and then I started researching about the breast milk jewellery. It was not easy.

Milk is something that is perishable and so we had to go through a lot of processing. As I said, the idea is not mine, I took the help of my friends and then reached to social media to inform people that were already making the jewellery successfully.

The first few pieces did not work out as the colour changed. Then I started working on it much harder and then I took around six months to get the right technique. There were lot of trials and errors that happened in the process.

I am interested in any craft that I come across, so I have the tools and materials that are required for the work. Since I know the craft, I do mix and match the polymer clay and breast milk to make the jewellery.

I had got milk from mothers and so I started doing this. There were incidents where the mothers personally approached me and gave the last few ml of milk.

Did you feel like giving up on the making breast milk jewellery when it was not working?

Yes! When it wasn't working, I felt like giving up, but people wanted to treasure this jewellery for a lifetime and that was the reason I stuck to it. That six months period was really stressful for me.

Did you try anything else aprt from jewellery?

Initially I made only jewellery, but then when mothers started approaching me, they said that they would be treasuring it in a safe and not wear it; they needed things that they could use more often.

Then I started making key sets like frames, bracelets, bottle keys, etc which are my creations.

How much time does it take to complete the product?

I ask the customers around four to five months' time to complete the product. Every month the orders keep fluctuating.

Did you happen to get any negative comments about your work?

I haven't had people telling it to me directly, but then when articles started coming out in newspapers and magazines, people commented about wasting breast milk.

What I felt from reading the comments was that people did not read the article because I just take around 10 to 20 ml of breast milk. A mother is going to make something for herself just once and so I just let go of the comments made.

How do you give time to personal and professional life?

I have three of my colleagues here who help me with this work; it's been a year now that they are working with me.

They are trained and they do 70 percent of my work. I have two kids and my elder one is all by himself. I try and balance work and personal life.

Have you got any more plans?

People used to question the process and if I was really using the milk they gave? So, I did a make and take session where 90 percent of the product work was done in front of the customer.

I had to formulate a technique for that. Now I want to do that regularly by next month.